Debinding books?

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Hi everyone

I think I remember reading somewhere on this forum about nursing students who debinded their giant textbooks and put them in a three-ring binder. I thought this was a great idea and looked for the thread where I saw this idea but I couldn't find it. I was wondering where the people that did this took your books to have this done or maybe the thread that this topic was discussed. I have a close to 2000 page book that I would LOVE to do this to! THANKS!!!:monkeydance:

I posted this in that thread! I did this to every one of my books. One semester it cost me $11. I have found a kinko's or two that didn't want to tear the cover off the book because they are afraid of you accusing them of ruining your book. If this happens, you just tear the cover off and they will do the rest. The initial set up of the machine is about $6, and each book is about $3, so do as many books as possible. They will drill holes in the pages and give it all back to you in a box. Takes about 20 mins. I would carry around the chapters needed for the next test, so they were always with me. Also, I would file the power points next to the chapters. During lecture, if the teacher said something in the book, I would highlight it. If they said it more than once, I would put a star next to it.

Let me tell you how easy it is to argue with a teacher after a test about a question when you can pull out your trim 1" 3 ring notebook and go right to the page! I earned many extra points that way! I got an 4.0 in nursing school, and didn't have to break my back doing it! Good Luck!

Excellent idea!:balloons: :lol2:

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Specializes in Medical Telemetry.
Thanks so much for posting! It was your post I was looking for! I forgot where I found it. This sounds like such a great idea. I am going to look around for a place to do it since I don't have a kinkos in the area. Thanks for such a great idea!

I read in that previous posting that another person went to Office Depot or Office Max (not sure which)...If you search allnurses for "debind", the page in the original thread will come up and you could find another place there too. I imagine you could find some hunky handyman to do it too! ;) Anyone with a vice grip, a saws-all, and a drill could do it. I may attempt it myself! Hopefully I don't ruin a perfectly good book!

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I accidently debinded my A & P book by leaving it in my black car during the day over summer! LOL! It melted right out of the cover! It probably wouldn't work everywhere but I'm in texas so it was too hot for my book to handle! That's a good idea to put it in binders though. I was wondering what to do with my book in pieces like this!

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Specializes in Cardiac.
I read in that previous posting that another person went to Office Depot or Office Max (not sure which)...If you search allnurses for "debind", the page in the original thread will come up and you could find another place there too. I imagine you could find some hunky handyman to do it too! ;) Anyone with a vice grip, a saws-all, and a drill could do it. I may attempt it myself! Hopefully I don't ruin a perfectly good book!

Well, it only cost me $11 to have Kinkos do it (3 books). Although it seems easy enough to do it at home as well. The only hard part would be getting the binding egde off.

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If the book isn't huge, you can also have it spiral bound. We used to do that with books up to about two hundred pages or so, at Office Max. I think they did the whole thing--debinding and spiral binding--for just a couple dollars. It works great for books that are easier to study if they lay flat, but is more secure than just putting them in a binder.

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"i just took an exacto knife...cut all the way through the binding glue...any pages that wanted to come apart i used a stapler. now its not the prettiest thing but it works!";)

this is probably the best way- i called kinco's and they said with hard or soft cover textbooks, that is all they do- cut it off. if it was a home bound or plastic coil, they would cut that too, but how hard is that to do yourself?! after debinding, punch holes in the side and you can add/remove the chapters you need/want from your binder!

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Specializes in Cardiac.

You have to go in and ask.

The perform a clean cut, and drill in the holes. For $11 for 3 books it was totally worth it.

But, if you just debing the cover off, they you can pull out the sections with a little but of the glue still on the bing and keep them together that way.

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Specializes in Future Peds Nurse.

What a fabulous idea! I am waiting for my fundamentals of nursing book to come in and I think I am going to take a few books down to kinkos and have this done. The books are so freaking big and I just can't carry them all; however, I like to have my material with me to reference it. Woo-hoo, thanks.

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Specializes in Cardiac.

You know what I did? I always kept the index and definitions with me as well in the back of my little binder as well as the topics at hand...

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This is a terrific idea :) I'm currently bike commuting as often as possible, which makes it hard to take much along with me, and I always feel a bit at a disadvantage not being able to look at my book during lecture. This solves that problem!

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I have several 1000+ page books. This is a great idea! I can have both with me to class and have notes with the chapters. Thanks guys! :tku:

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Do you guys know any place other than kinkos that does this? I don't have a kinkos anywhere near where I live. Thanks!

I believe I read somewhere in that other forum that Staples will do it also.

Sounds like a great idea!

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